Discussion Guide for the Golino Article

Between their underlying illness and the intensive care unit (ICU) environment, patients receiving mechanical ventilation (MV) are exposed to numerous stressors. Stress often elicits negative emotional symptoms, such as anxiety—reported by 80% of MV patients—and predisposes patients to posttraumatic stress disorder. Mainstay treatments for managing stress responses among MV patients (antipsychotics, analgesics, and sedatives) have not changed in more than 2 decades. Yet these medications increase the risk of adverse effects (eg, respiratory depression, hemodynamic instability, delirium) that ultimately impede liberation from MV and contribute to long-term disability. Nonpharmacologic interventions are emerging as a promising means of alleviating stress responses among MV patients. For example, live music therapy (LMT) interventions diminish physiological stress responses and reduce pain intensity in MV patients. But these findings were from an isolated study and should be replicated in more rigorous study conditions. Therefore, the authors examined the influence of LMT on physiological stress parameters,...